Fun Stuff:

07/12/2013

One thing I find notable about the clerk's response is her insistence that she is duty-bound to follow the civil laws of the state of Mississippi. She's right, of course. But just imagine if she said she wanted to use her pro-gay religious beliefs to go against her lawful duties. The folks over at the National Organization for Marriage would go downright apecrap about it! Yet what do they say whenever an equally duty-bound clerk in a pro-equality state cites his or her anti-LGBT faith beliefs to deny a couple a civil license? They act as if it's a perfectly fair, perfectly reasonable, needs-to-be-protected act of conscience. As long as it's a religious belief and it goes against us, then they want a heightened protection.

Oddly, in this unfortunate act of denial, I see a strong takeaway about what civil law means for any person who holds this kind of role. The law is the law and anyone wishing to serve in a clerk role must act in accordance with said law. Even when it sucks. Period.